Terry Gerton Alright, the Senate has decided to stick with its schedule and stay in DC for the rest of this week. It looked like it, that decision was a little touch and go last week. So what was it that made them say, yeah, we really need to stay and work on some things?

Loren Duggan It really was one of those lingering questions all week. Will they stay? Will they go? They decided to stay, as you said, in part because there are a few things they want to get a vote on before they leave or continuing discussing. I think one of the push pull here is are senators who are vulnerable better off here trying to get something done or going home and trying to campaign. That seemed to be one of, the factors they were weighing. So we’ll see if some of the items they get to this week will be better for them to have been in town for but you know that that agenda was still taking shape as they left last week.

Terry Gerton When you think about those agenda topics that might play well back home, a couple are around diesel fuels and trying to manage the cost of diesel fuel and also permitting for energy and data center projects. So talk a little bit about where those two things are.

Loren Duggan Yeah, the diesel export ban or embargo is something that’s been talked about, both in the administration and on Capitol Hill, more Capitol Hill with senators like Charles Grassley and candidates like Mike Rogers in Michigan and Ashley Hinson in Iowa have said, maybe we should look at this and see if it’s something that if Congress can’t do it, maybe the administration should, but we didn’t see action last week. We’ll see if that’s something they can come to a vote. Kind of dovetails with an idea some Republicans in the House wanted before they left about a gas tax holiday suspending the federal tax, I know some states have looked at that. So those are two of the discussions that are out there. Permitting has been a long cooking effort that in particular in the Senate, you have folks like Mike Lee (R-UT) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) on the Energy Committee and then Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) on the Environment Committee who have been working for months on a package. It seemed like there were green shoots last week, but maybe that got pulled back toward the end, but maybe being here this week again, we’ll get those talks going and maybe they can come up with text that they can share and have a vote on, but that’s maybe a tall order and just a week to get that kind of bill over the line.

Terry Gerton Well, those are all certainly things that would play with the constituents back home when they get there to campaign, whether they actually move a bill forward, they would still have to wait for the House to return, right?

Loren Duggan Oh yeah, that’s been a big factor here. The House left a week or more ago and doesn’t seem inclined to come back. They said if there was maybe something around the budget resolution to get reconciliation rolling, they come back and they always could make plans to return, but that doesn’t see even the cards quite yet.

Terry Gerton One of the other bills that for some reason seems to be central to the stay or go conversation is Ted Cruz’s college sports renovation bill. What is going on with that one?

Loren Duggan That is due for its final vote on Monday after a series of procedural votes over the last week, where members have been taking the time that is allotted under the Senate rules to debate and go through these steps. There are some lawmakers who still were hoping to get changes made to that bill, which is one of the reasons you slow it down and maybe use that as leverage to get your talking points and your amendments over the line. But we may just see them vote on the package as it was presented to them by Ted Cruz and his allies. But it’s a bill that has kind of 70-ish percent support in the Senate, because these procedural votes have all gotten somewhere in the 70s when they’ve been taking them. But there are some opponents who are going to take the time they have to oppose it and try to stop it if they can. But it seems like it’s heading toward passage on Monday night.

Terry Gerton The arguments against it seemed to pop a little bit last week, especially from the Congressional Black Caucus and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), NAACP, making some arguments that this really disadvantages black college athletes. What does that tell you about the coalition within the Democratic Party in general? And what does it tell you the likelihood that this bill actually makes it past?

Loren Duggan Yeah, the House sponsor of it, Michael Baumgartner (Wash.), he’s a Republican, thinks there’s about a 60% chance they can get it done if they get it through the Senate. He told our reporter that last week. So we’ll see if that is indeed the case. But, you know, there’s always a coalition behind these bills. They do have a broad coalition for it, but there are these Democratic disagreements where, whether it’s allies of labor or the CBC who helped scuttle a House version of this bill earlier this year that had been developing over there. So we’ll see if that opposition remains united in the House and it’s something that can prevent the bill from moving forward. But you know, managing a coalition that’s diverse is difficult, something that House Democrats right now have been unified in saying no, for the most case things, but we’ll have to see what they can do to get to yes next year, especially if they’re in the majority about pushing forward their agenda.

Terry Gerton Loren Duggan is deputy news director for Bloomberg government. Loren, let’s come back to one other thing that certainly will sit on the Senate’s to-do list and that’s confirmations. We’re still hearing about a lot of empty chairs in the Defense Department, concern about the Secretary of Labor nominee. Where are they at in confirmations? What are they likely to get through this week?

Loren Duggan We’ll be looking for that. They didn’t tee too much up. We’ve seen a couple of votes in this work period around judicial nominees and some committee votes, certainly processing nominees, holding hearings, especially in the health space in the last couple of weeks, but it’s not unclear what they’ll try to get done before they leave. They could get back to these nominees in the lame duck session, and maybe there will be a major push there, especially if there’s a change in control in the Senate that might raise the stakes of getting as much done as you can. While you still have a Republican majority, if indeed that’s the calculation they need to make. But yeah, there’s been talk, but not a lot of scheduling yet on some of these nominees on the floor.

Terry Gerton And if they don’t finish the folks who have been nominated at this point come January do they have to be re-nominated?

Loren Duggan They would go back at the end of the Congress, anyone who wasn’t dealt with. And, you know, the president will be nominating them to a different Congress. Even if the Republicans maintain control, it could be by fewer numbers. There’ll be different people in the spots confirming people. So we’ll have to see how that plays out. But, you now, that could be a dynamic that the administration is keenly aware of going into this fall’s elections about what next year might look like trying to get their nominees through.

Terry Gerton One of the other topics that we’ve talked about a lot is congressional response to artificial intelligence and lots of pressure from lots of places to do something, anything, please do something. We had President Xi in town last week with lots of the AI tech leaders. Did any conversations get convened? Did it move the needle on anything?

Loren Duggan We’ll see. I mean, the readouts were still coming out at the end of the week. And the president Trump said overall, the meeting was very productive. We’ll, see what that translates into, into individual policy concerns. They did talk about this idea of a hotline between the two countries to report incidents. And certainly a lot of these technology leaders were at the dinner on Thursday night at the white house and maybe back this week or in other meetings going forward as well. Congress has not really moved much on this over the course of their time back here. The House obviously is gone. The Senate would leave this week. Some members are introducing ideas that they want to discuss. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) had a bill last week around some workforce implications, but I don’t think we’re going to, we’re certainly unlikely to see a package before the election at this rate, just given the amount of days left and people’s attention being elsewhere. Maybe it’s a lame duck issue. Maybe it waits to be a 2027 issue, but, I think AI is going to be, a major issue, as it has been this year, we just haven’t necessarily seen the votes. Or any legislation move too far across the line.

Terry Gerton And certainly, although it seemed to be in a subsidiary position for conversations, is national security and international military operations, concerns about where our asset balances are, given the operations in Iran with respect to the Pacific. What did you hear in that space, concerns about national security?

Loren Duggan There were a number of members concerned about the welcome that Xi was getting, including a state dinner and things like that. Very few congressmembers were at the dinner. Oftentimes you see a healthy contingent of the Hill. I think it was maybe a handful and other people being critical of the visit. And certainly Iran is hanging over a lot and with the United Nations General Assembly last week and the Iranian president there, a lot is in the air there. So it seems like the national defense conversations about things like how to fund the war, how to find the department, how to authorize the policies are going to be lame duck issues as well. So, you know, obviously that’s going to be something when they come back. But, a lot of lawmakers were chatting last week about their feelings about these matters.

Terry Gerton Well, the Senate took another war powers vote and it didn’t pass. So those pots will just still be left on simmer on the metaphorical congressional stove for 40 more days.

Loren Duggan Indeed, this was a 49-50 vote. They had four Republicans siding with them, so they did get some support. But John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was a no vote voting with most of the Republicans on that. So, you know, that’s been a vote they’ve taken many times. I’m not sure if they’ll do it again before the election. Democrats could try to force that, maybe not, but there certainly won’t be a congressional vote ending it, but we still haven’t seen the votes that you are expecting at some point on how to fund it and what to do there. So those are big decisions for later in the year.

Terry Gerton Still some really big things then that have to be resolved.

Loren Duggan Absolutely.